by Ashley McGuire
Real Clear Politics
Since Merriam-Webster is making all sorts of changes these days, the editors ought to change the entry for “hypocrite” to read as follows:
hyp·o·crite (n.) a person who is like Gavin Newsom.
At this point, who hasn’t seen the photos of the governor of the most populous state in the country — with some of the most severe COVID restrictions to be found — sipping wine and dining maskless, crammed around a table with a dozen or so elites at arguably the most famous and hoity-toity restaurant in America?
The in-your-face elitism of it all would make Marie Antoinette blush, never mind the fact that the restaurant is called French Laundry. It’s too much.
It’s a level of hypocrisy that, even in today’s world of pandemic contradictions from the top, is hard to take. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s husband pushing to have their boat placed in the water this past May after she banned residents from fleeing to their own neighboring cottages was a lot. British epidemiologist Neil Ferguson violating his own lockdown prohibition by meeting with his married lover was a rough one. Nancy Pelosi demanding she get a special and illegal hair color, cut and blowout when salon owners of America were being arrested for even opening was kind of nuts.